Numerous existing automatic fishing and automatic hook setting devices use combination of a spring device and trigger device to either lift the fishing rod upward, or to pull the fish line, upon fish strikes. Many of these inventions are fishing rod holder devices. The spring device used in these rod holder type devices is to store energy for lifting the fishing rod. The trigger device is used to transforming the tug of the line by a fish strike to trigger the release of energy stored in the spring device. U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,413, issued on Jun. 17, 1979 to Robert T. Snider and Jessie G. Zimmerman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,315, issued on May 2, 1977 to Gary J. Hoffman, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,205, issued on Aug. 6, 1996 to Lester Updike is among this type of inventions. The spring device and trigger device in such cases mimic the use of energy stored in the human muscle and the reaction of a fisherman to the fish strike.
Combination of a spring device and trigger device usually means that the manufacturing processes of those devices are likely to be complicated, and the cost can be high. Many fishing rod holder devices are also heavy, not practical to carry around, or easy to setup. Not easy to use and high cost limits the practical application and market acceptance of those devices.
Besides using spring as the store of energy in automatic fishing devices, there are a few inventors use weight instead of spring to store energy. U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,355 issued on May 27, 1980 to William C. Almond, describes a simple automatic fish catcher using a weight for pulling the fish line. This fish catcher uses a horizontal support arm to hang a weight, and the fish line is attached to the weight so that the tightening of the fish line by fish strikes will drag the weight out of the horizontal support arm, causing the weight to fall and pulling the fish with it. Although it is a low cost and easy to use device for automatic fishing, this device has certain shortcomings. First, the weight support arm has to be set up horizontally. Out of horizontal position will either cause the weight to fall by itself, or make it harder for fish to move the weight outward to fall. Unless the fish is firmly hooked at the beginning of the strike, the biting fish may give up the bite since it has to apply considerable force to move such weight outward. This may reduce the effectiveness of the device. Second, the objectives of the device is also lifting a hooked fish to the water surface, this means that the weight needs be proportional to the weight of the fish, which is usually unknown before the fish is surfaced. Third, the weight of this device need considerable falling height to lift hooked fish to the water surface, it is not suitable in place of shallow water. Forth, this device combines automatic hook setting and automatic fish catcher in one very simple device; this make it difficult to achieve both goals well. Fifth, this device only works when the direction of the fish bite is away from the fishing device to cause the tightening of the fish line. If fish bites in opposite direction, setting the fish line loose, the weight will stay still, giving opportunity for the fish to escape.
In fact, many automatic fishing devices only work when fish is biting away from the fishing device. They depend on the tightening of fish line to trigger the hook setting devices. They are ineffective when fish is biting toward the fishing device, in such case the fish line is loosening instead of tightening. In general, when movement of the fish cause the fish line to loose, it is much harder for an angler to react, regardless whether an automatic fishing device is used or not. Since it is hard to detect the loosening of the line, and even harder to have a good timing to pull the line.